


Confessions

by reachingjameson



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan Queen Week Summer 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7712248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachingjameson/pseuds/reachingjameson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina knows that someone is watching her house and one night takes the initiative to figure out who and why. The perpetrator isn't who she might have expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confessions

Adjusting to being on her own was easy for Regina. She had felt alone even when surrounded by people for most of her life and so even with Robin torn from her; the process of getting on with things seemed to come naturally. Her friends and her son were always watchful when they were with her, and she was hardly to blind to Henry’s obvious efforts to spend much more time with her than usual. Still, there were nights when Henry would stay at Emma’s or with a friend and that left Regina in a cold silence. Her routine on these nights was sadly simple. Dinner at Granny’s, usually alone, followed by quiet drinks alone at home before she would eventually retire to bed. In the beginning most nights resulted in Regina crying herself to sleep. 

The routine was only broken by her paranoia two weeks after Robin’s death and the subsequent influx of new characters in Storybrooke. Regina had initially worried that her grief was causing her to hallucinate when she started to catch brief glimpses of shadows in the street when she returned home and drew the curtains of her bedroom window. The shadows moved quickly whenever Regina looked out in to the street just beyond her hedges and on the fourth consecutive night; Regina caught a flash of a solid human form as they dove behind a parked car to avoid being seen. Either out of stupidity or not wanting to worry anyone more than they already were; Regina failed to alert her friends the heroes to the figure that lurked nearby. Perhaps there was a part of Regina that dared this person to make a move against her when she was alone. Whoever the shadows belonged to was clearly someone who had some sort of axe to grind with Regina and was maybe working up the courage to actually do something about it. Their spying never so much as breached her front yard, or within any distance from which they Regina would be able to identify them in any case, and Regina quickly grew frustrated. 

Deciding to test her stalker and perhaps tempt fate by doing so, Regina refrained from having dinner at Granny’s after work after the seventh consecutive night of spotting someone lurking nearby. Regina had attempted to magic herself outside and catch whoever was watching the house but had missed them somehow, the stranger gone by the time Regina had reappeared out in the street. Tonight, Regina would be far quicker. She drove around town for nearly an hour after leaving her office far later than usual and immediately retired to her study. According to her routine, Regina would spend an hour or so pottering about before she would eventually go upstairs and inevitably see the dopey figure just barely managed to dive behind something before being seen. Though the stranger might be a villain, Regina doubted they were a very well-practised one. 

Tonight, unlike ever other night that had preceded it, Regina did not go upstairs. She didn’t touch a drop of alcohol so that she knew her senses would be as alert as possible. With a careful eye constantly on the clock, Regina waited until just after nine when she usually went up to close the curtains and spotted her stalker lurking nearby, and then she engulfed herself in a thick cloud of purple. 

It was cold out and the chill set in to the bare skin of Regina’s arms and legs immediately as she appeared out in the middle of the street a hundred yards from her house, right behind the cars her stalker was so fond of using as a shield. Regina’s lips were already curling in to a victorious sneer as she spotted the hooded figure leaning against the trunk of her tree so that their form would have almost completely blended in to it from a distance. Regina was silent as she took a few strides forward; until the hood and jacket came in to sharper focus.

“Emma?” 

If Regina hadn’t been so confused she would have laughed at the comical way in which the blonde woman jumped at the sudden sound of a voice directly behind her. Emma, hood pulled up firmly, jerked awkwardly and spun around wildly. 

The sheriff’s eyes were wide with guilt and surprise and she quickly wrenched the hood of her thick jacket back down. “Regina, I can explain-“

“You’re the one that’s been watching me?” Regina spoke over Emma, disbelief rocketing through her as she looked from the point where Emma stood to her own bedroom window that was still open. It was impossible to see anything through it other than the curtains themselves should they be closed. “What the hell, Swan?” Regina demanded in a growl, her gaze flashing back to Emma while her fists clenched, a defensive action to distract her from the hurt that she felt in her chest. 

Looking almost desperate, Emma was already shaking her head. “Whatever you’re thinking it’s wrong, I swear. I’m not here to spy on you or hurt you or anything weird. It’s just…” she trailed off there, swallowed hard as awkwardness crept its way in to her tone. “With Robin gone and all of these new shady people in town I was worried about you being here by yourself. I know you can take care of yourself and I’m not saying you need my help but…I just wanted to look out for you. I needed to know you were safe,” Emma finished all in one pent up breath, unable to meet Regina’s gaze. 

“Why?” Regina found herself asking; a fairly safe question considering the level of complex conclusions that her mind wanted to jump to instead. 

Emma lifted her shoulders in a shrug, “Because you’re my…friend,” she said, sounding not at all convincing, frowning to herself as though she was far from contest with her own response.

“That’s the reason?” Regina asked with a breathless scoff of disbelief. “Have you been loitering outside the homes of your other friends?” she asked curiously, though from the awkward way Emma kicked at the ground she was sure she knew the answer already. 

“No,” Emma sighed. 

“Why?” Regina pressed, her tone softer as she felt they were hurtling toward something major. 

“Because you’re my family, Regina. Because I love you, ok?” Emma confessed the words quickly and far too loudly so that she was almost shouting. Panic flooded Emma’s expression instantly, her mouth wide with disbelief, entire body poised waiting for a reaction. 

“Ok.”

Emma frowned back at Regina’s simple response. “Ok? You’re not mad? You don’t want to, I don’t know, fry me to a crisp or something? Tell me to go to hell? Call me a bunch of names?” Emma wondered, seemingly genuinely surprised by Regina’s calm reaction. 

Hands clasped in front of her, Regina summoned up as much of her courage as she could and stepped closer to a clearly dumbfounded Emma, smiling at the expression that was presented to her. “Thank you for caring,” Regina told her quietly, uncharacteristically shy as she leant forward to kiss Emma’s cheek gently. 

Expression softening, Emma’s lips twitched in to a small smile. “Like I could help it,” she laughed breathlessly, freely, like a weight had been lifted from her. 

“Goodnight, Emma,” Regina breathed in as she spoke, smiling at Emma before finally stepped out of the few inches of space that had been left between them. Regina heard the soft murmuring of a farewell over her shoulder as she walked back to her house, and by the time she got upstairs to her bedroom window it was to watch Emma back away with a wave, her cautious but hopeful smile mirrored on Regina’s face, too. 

Regina’s skin buzzed with the memory of Emma’s confession falling over her, the words carrying more meaning than perhaps either of them were willing to admit just yet. But there was hope in Regina’s heart, true hope that she had blazing in Emma’s eyes.


End file.
